ANGEL the Feline and the Man Who Could Fly XMEN
by t0ritee
Summary: 18 year old Valerie Brookes and 23 year old Warren Worthington couldn't be more different, but opposites attract in this thrilling tale of love, lies, and the ultimate decision: choosing sides. ANGELxOC **Rated M for language and Adult Situations in later chapters**
1. 0

**Warren Worthington ||| (Angel) romance**

**brief John Allerdyce (Pyro) romance in early chapters**

-Set during 'The Last Stand'-

18 year old Valerie Brookes and 23 year old Warren Worthington ||| couldn't be more different, but opposites attract in this thrilling tale of love, lies, and the ultimate decision: choosing sides.

xxx

Valerie isn't your average teenager, but at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, or "Mutant High", she fits in just fine. Once ashamed of her mutation, Valerie now proudly sports her cat ears, tail, and striking golden feline eyes. Along with cat like features, she is gifted with cat like abilities: Excellent hearing, night vision, and near perfect agility.

Valerie has a punk rock attitude, is comfortable in her own skin, and has a firecracker personality.

So, when she meets Warren, a troubled young artist and business man, with something she can relate to; a physical mutation... A huge pair of feathery white angel wings; She is intrigued. Warren struggles with his identity, keeping his secret from the world and only spreading his wings behind the closed doors of his apartment.

As they keep seeing each other, Warren and Valerie's friendship grows rapidly, and they become very close... So close, intimate feelings develop along with their friendship.

But when scientists release a strange new 'mutant cure', things begin to change. Warren believes 'curing' himself is the way to a better, happier life, and Valerie struggles to convince him he's perfect just the way he is.

Mutants everywhere take sides; Be Cured, or Take a Stand.

But Warren is keeping a big secret from Valerie, and the chaos is just barely beginning...


	2. 1

Age 13

It was a gloomy, rainy afternoon in the middle of April.

In the small, upstairs bathroom of a 1978 home in the Northeast corner of Wichita, Kansas, a young girl by the name of Valerie Brookes stared at her reflection in the scratched up mirror.

She sighed, watching the sharp golden eyes blink back at her, the pupils a dark sliver of black... like a cat's eyes... because they were cat's eyes.

Her golden orbs flicked up to the fuzzy gray ears peeking out from under her dark, naturally wavy hair, and she frowned as they twitched involuntarily. Behind her image in the reflection, something long and thin snaked up from her lower back... A tail, the same fuzzy gray as the ears.

The young girl's head tilted to the side as she studied herself, still not used to the changes in her appearence, not even after six and a half months.

Three of those months didn't count, though, because she had avoided most of the mirrors in her house. Valerie hid in her room, not even her mother or father could coax her out, no matter how hard they tried.

But the other three months were a different story. When the shock of the change finally wore off, the little girl couldn't get enough of her reflection. She became obsessed with staring into mirrors, twitching the ears and tail, blinking the eyes, as if she were testing to see if they were real.

To her, this all seemed like some strange Halloween costume... Except she was too old to trick or treat, and she couldn't take this disguise off.

When the physical changes took place abruptly on Valerie's 13th birthday several months ago, her parents naturally pulled her out of her public middle school and enrolled her in online classes, not knowing what else to do.

Because she was so strange, so different from the other children her age, Valerie lost all of her friends. She and her family were ostracized by friends, neighbors, and even other family members, and soon the stress of being so alone took a heavy toll on she and her parents.

Late one evening last month, when Valerie had been in bed, an argument between her parents downstairs had woken her up. The walls in the old, outdated home were paper thin, so almost every word could be heard from any room, unless you were careful to whisper.

It didn't help that Valerie was naturally a light sleeper, either. The screams from both her parents jolted her awake, and after only seconds of listening, she knew that the problem was her.

"I can't do this anymore, Susanne," Her father had shouted desperately, his voice cracking, "I've tried. I've tried so hard, but that's... not my little girl, anymore."

A stinging pain of rejection stung in Valerie's heart as those words trailed from her father's lips, rolled up the stairs and into her ear drums.

"Trevor, what are you doing?" Her mother had pleaded, "Honey, put the bag down, please!"

Valerie's animalistic eyes fogged with tears as she listened to her mother follow her father's stomping footsteps around the first floor of their home. She begged for him to stay, she tried to assure him that they would all "figure this thing out".

"There is no figuring this out, Susanne." Her father's voice snapped sharply, thundering over her mother's and drowning her out. There was a pause, then his voice again, but softer. "I'm sorry... but I'm leaving... I already booked my hotel room online."

Then, Valerie heard the front door open, and the rickety frame to her bedroom window rattled softly when the door shut again. The sound comforted her, that window frame had rattled that way all her life.

But the comfort didn't last long. Once she picked up the sound of the engine in her father's Chevy Blazer sputter to life, her heart sank as she was reminded that her small family was breaking into pieces, all because of her.

Valerie listened as the brakes squeaked, meaning her father was now backed out of the driveway. Then, the tires scraped against the asphalt, and took off down the street. The rushing sound of the Blazer gaining distance from the house faded out, and her father was gone, leaving her with the painful, echoeing sobs from her mother downstairs.

Suddenly, Valerie's acute hearing picked up a car door softly shutting in their driveway, pulling her out of her painful memories. She slowly padded over to the locked bathroom door, pressing her ear softly against the cheap cardboard material, made to look like wood.

She tuned in, listening as the sound of thin wheels rolling against the damp front walkway brushed her sensitive feline eardrums. A bicycle...? No... a wheelchair.

Then she caught the sound of two hushed voices, but they were whispering so softly that even her fine tuned hearing couldn't pick up the individual words... Valerie could only tell that there was a man and a woman, and they were standing on her front porch.

The sound of an umbrella swooping shut and a soft knock on the front door only seconds later confirmed her suspicions.

Right below Valerie, the droning sound of water rushing from the kitchen sink that she hadn't even noticed silenced. The familier click-clack of her mother's favorite shiney red shoes tracked in a path across the linoleum to the front door, the hinges creaking as she opened it.

"Oh my, hello," Valerie's mother spoke loud enough for her to hear, "I wasn't expecting you so early, I was just finishing up the dishes... No, no, that's all right. Please, come in out of the rain and have a seat. I'll just call Valerie..."

The young teen sighed inwardly, closing her eyes and leaning her forhead against the door. She could hear her mother's footsteps getting closer to the botton of the stairs, knowing it was only seconds until she would call up to her.

"3... 2... 1..." Valerie whispered to herself.

"Val, honey?" Her mother called out, right on que, from the bottom of the stairs, "Could you come down here, please? The teachers from that nice school are here to talk to you."

The feline girl rolled her eyes behind the door. She had been listening to her mother go on and on about this 'wonderful school' where 'kids like her' go to 'learn about themselves and make friends'. Frankly, she didn't care much to talk to these people. What did they really know about her? This was probably just one of those fancy private schools, out to suck all the money from her mother's skinny bank account.

But, if it would make her mother happy, Valerie would do it.

"Sweetie, are you okay?" Her mother's voice rang out again, sounding a little concerned now.

Valerie groaned and wrapped her hand around the loose doorknob, jiggling it and pulling the bathroom door open.

"I'm fine, mom, I'm coming." Her small voice impatiently hollered back down the stairs as she padded down the hall in her slippers.

Valerie took her time with each step, listening to her mom walk back over to the living room where the guests were seated. She politely offered them some coffee or tea, but both the female and male voice respectfully declined.

Valerie's stomach twisted into knots as she neared the bottom of the stairs. Her next move was to round the corner, revealing herself to everyone in the room in plain view. She licked her lips, wishing she could turn and bolt up the stairs to her room, hurl her covers over her head and hide until these teachers gave up on her and returned to where ever they came from.

But, she knew that wasn't an option. So, after a deep breath, she stepped around the corner. A wave of anxiety flushed over her body as she finally met eyes with the two strangers in her home.

A beautiful African American woman with long silver hair rose up from the couch, moving to stand next a bald man with striking blue eyes, confined to the wheel chair Valerie had heard rolling up the walkway.

Her mother sat in the floral print arm chair to their right, glancing between the two teachers and her daughter.

The young girl felt a little awkward as she was eyed by the two strange people. She watched their eyes trail from the abnormal cat ears peeking from her dark, wavy shoulder length hair, to the golden cat eyes shining on the pale pallet of her thin heart shaped face, down to the slender cat tail wrapping around her thin leg, covered in a pair of faded, straight legged jeans.

"Hello, Valerie." The woman spoke up carefully when she noticed the uncomfortable expression on the teen's face, "My name is Professor Ororo, and this is Professor Xavier. We came to-"

"I know," Valerie suddenly cut Ororo off, her voice flat and dry, "You came to tell me about some wonderful, magical place that's going to cure me and solve all my problems... Right?"

The silver haired woman's sweet expression never wavered. When she drew in a short breath to speak again, Professor Xavier gently rose his hand, signaling that he could do some of the talking now.

"Hello, Valerie." He repeated Ororo's sincere greeting. His voice was calm and gentle, with an elegant British accent to it. "My name is Charles. Have a seat, won't you, dear?"

He motioned to the couch to his left, where Ororo was now calmly taking her seat again. She smiled and patted the tan cushion next to her in an attempt to coax the unnerved child over to her.

Valerie's fuzzy gray ears flattened ontop of her head, and her tail flicked anxiously as her uncertain eyes flashed over to her mother, looking for guidance. She nodded to her daughter, who in turn robotically moved her legs toward the couch.

"So, you've heard about my school, have you?" Charles asked the child in a kind tone, pulling out a brochure from the breast pocket of his suit. "Have you seen pictures?"

Valerie's cat ears involuntarily raised up again as she glanced to her mother again, shaking her head, even though that was a lie. She was constantly being pulled away from what she was doing, whether it was her math homework or making a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich, to look at the different pictures of the classrooms or the courtyard that her mother dug up on the internet.

She just wanted to do whatever possible to end this conversation quickly, and get back to her life.

"It really is a lovely place," Charles went on as he unfolded the brochure in front of her, "Especially for young people like you. That's who I built it for."

Valerie stared at the pictures of the school; A huge building that almost looked like a castle, sitting ontop of a hill lush with vegetation. The front was covered in dark green, mossy vines, and bunches of pink flowers... It was actually really beautiful.

Her eyes skipped down to a photo of an enourmous, Victorian looking library, with a computer lab and a spiral staircase, leading up to a second floor that looked down on the first.

Underneath that photo was one of a group of five teenagers just a little older than Valerie was. Each of them posed around a long black a table inside a lab or classroom, gesturing to a statue of a molecule. They all basically looked like normal kids, except for the boy all the way to the right.

His tounge was sticking out, tinged a strange blue color and forked at the end like a snake's.

"It's a beautiful campus, isn't it?" Ororo's soft, airy voice pulled Valerie's eyes away from the brochure, and into her gentle face. "Full of other boys and girls, just like you."

Valerie's eyes narrowed as she looked from Ororo to Charles. She folded her pale, skinny arms over her stomach and leaned back into the couch.

"You guys keep saying these kids are like me..." Valerie protested, "But they don't look like me. They look normal."

"But they are like you, dear."

The young girl's feline eyes widened as she heard Professor Xavier's voice... But his lips hadn't moved. They only grinned kindly at her.

"We are like you."

She leaned up off the back of the couch, tilting her head to the side in total confusion.

"How are you doing that...?" She asked the man, earning a very confused look out of her mother.

Professor Xavier's blue eyes twinkled as he simply raised a finger to his temple and gave it a tap.

"It's my gift." Was his simple reply.

The smallest of smiles spread across Valerie's lips as she turned to look at Ororo.

"What can you do?" She asked, her young voice full of intrigue.

The woman shifted her gaze over to Charles, question reading all over her face. He gave her a nod, and she glimpsed back at Valerie before turning her body a few degrees to her right.

Ororo was now facing the front window, where the street and front yard could be seen. The sky was still gray and cloudy, drizzling rain down over the grass, houses and cars.

The room was quiet, only the sound of the rain pattered against the window as Ororo prepared to show what her ability was. Both Valerie and her mother stared in suspense, while Charles simply folded his hands in his lap and smiled softly.

The beautiful African American woman closed her dark eyes, taking a few deep breaths. When they fluttered open again, the iris, pupil and whites of her eyes all seemed to blend together, as if they were covered in blankets of fog.

Suddenly, the sound of the rain peppering the front window began to fade. Valerie's mother gasped from behind her, causing her eyes to whip to the window.

What she saw amazed her. The rain was rapidly letting up, and the clouds seemed to disperse as if someone was blowing them away, like smoke. Within a matter of fifteen seconds, the weather had taken a complete turn, leaving a fresh blue sky and bright, shining sun.

All at the hands of Professor Ororo.

Her eyes faded back to the original deep brown as she passed a humble smile around the group.

"Wow..." Valerie whispered.

Her mother stared, her eyes wide. She was completely speechless, having never seen anything like that before. Except in movies and TV shows, of course.

"Weather manipulation." Charles spoke up, "I've always thought it was a beautiful mutation."

A soft, rosey blush spread over Ororo's silky bronze cheeks as Charles smiled at her.

"...Mutation?" Valerie's mother repeated slowly, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

"Yes, Ms. Brookes," Charles clarified sincerely as he turned his gaze over in her direction, "A mutation... An evolving of the DNA. The term sounds brash, that's why I prefer the word 'gift'... And that is what Valerie has." His eyes suddenly fell upon the young girl on the couch. "A gift."

Her eyes sparkled in a smile. That was the first time anyone had ever referred to her appearence as a gift...

"I can't do anything cool like you, though," Valerie grumbled, "I have these ears and tail, that's it... I guess I can hear pretty good, see in the dark... Big whoop."

"You never know what you can do with a little education." Professor Xavier pointed out.

Valerie sat and thought for a moment about that statement, tuning out the three adults as they discussed the fundamentals of the school. Was there more that she could do, but just didn't know about it?

"Valerie?"

The teen snapped her eyes away from the coffee table where they had been fixated, and met the gaze of her mother, who had called her name. She looked to her daughter expectantly.

"Professor Xavier asked you a question, sweetie." Her voice was gentle but pressing.

"I-I'm sorry, I um..." Valerie stammered sheepishly, "I wasn't listening."

"I was saying that I would love for you to come back to New York with Ororo and I. You can stay at our school, enjoy the campus and classes... I think you would be very happy."

There was a pause as Valerie soaked in this information. New York was hundreds of miles away... What if she didn't like it there?

Valerie gulped under the gaze of everyone in the room. When she went to speak again, her lips and mouth felt dry.

"I don't know..." She croaked, clearing her throat, "Can I think about it?"

Ororo looked to Charles, who nodded at the teenager's request.

"Of course." He replied, his voice genuine, "I understand that this is a big decision, for both of you." He flashed his eyes between the mother and daughter, "Professor Ororo and I will be in town for one more week. When you've made your decision, you have the number to reach us."

Everyone stood from their seated positions, Ororo moving behind Charles' wheelchair and grasping the handles.

"It was very lovely meeting you both." She said politely as Valerie's mother walked them to the door, and she headed to the stairs.

All the while, her steps felt like slow motion as she intensely debated with herself inside her head. This is what she had wanted all along, for the two Professors to just ask their questions and leave... But did she make the right choice?

Two extraordinary people had just sat in front of her and offered her a chance to escape, to get out of this house, out of this city she was trapped in, where it seemed like everyone knew her face... Where everyone judged her and looked down on her for who, or what, she was.

These people were wanting to give her a new life, an opportunity to be around other people her age... To go school and learn, sit in an actual classroom instead of her living room with an old textbook and a Lesson Plan notepad.

And she was just letting them walk out the door with that opportunity still in their hands. Suddenly, her mind completely changed.

Valerie whirled around at the bottom of the staircase, just in time to catch the two stepping out of the open front door, her mother just about to shut it behind them.

"Professor Ororo, Professor Xavier, wait!" She called out, and everyone instantly halted.

Ororo and Charles craned their necks, backing up through the doorway to look at the girl.

"I changed my mind." Valerie stated boldly after a deep breath, "I'll go. I'll go with you."

... X


	3. 2

Age 13

The plane ride to New York from Kansas was long and boring. Luckily, Valerie's partial cat DNA allowed her to nap easily, and for long periods of time. When she, Charles and Ororo had touched down in the New York city airport, the jolt of the landing gear skidding against the run way startled her awake.

Valerie's golden feline eyes flashed in the murky reflection of the airplane window as she stared out over the wing. It was autumn in New York; the grass was brown, the sky was gloomy grey, and the scarce leaves still clinging to the branches of the trees were faded shades of yellow and orange.

The chilly weather gave Valerie a perfect excuse to wear her cozy, purple knit beanie. Her hands instinctively reached up and tugged it downwards, making sure it fit snuggly over her ears.

"Do you have your backpack, Valerie?" Ororo asked from her left, in the middle seat.

She looked up to the smiling woman and nodded, pulling her white backpack with the neon colored stars on the pockets out from under the seat. She lugged it into her lap just as the pilot's voice buzzed over the intercom.

"Aaaalrighty, ladies and gentlemen, we have safely arrived at our destination; New York, New York." The raspy male voice announced, "At this time, we will be beginning the unboarding process. Children under 16 traveling alone, and those with visual or mobile disabilities are free to exit the aisles."

Valerie could see a tall, blonde flight attendent traveling down through the aisle toward Charles, who sat in the aisle seat on the other side of Ororo. She carried a wheelchair under her arm, folded up so she could carry it easily.

She set it down in the aisle next to Charles, who smiled and thanked her kindly. Ororo rose from her seat once the flight attendent had assembled the wheelchair, insisting politely that she could take it from there.

The blonde woman smiled and nodded before returning to the front of the plane, instructing the other anxious passengers to remain seated for just a few more minutes.

Valerie watched as Professor Xavier effortlessly slid himself from the airplane seat to the wheelchair, using nothing but his arms and upper body strength. Ororo then grabbed her bag from under the seat, turned to her and nodded for her to follow as she stood up.

The teen kept quiet and did what she was told, standing up and trailing behind Ororo as she wheeled Charles toward the exit of the plane. The perfectly put together flight attendents flashed their pearly white teeth and waved farewell to them as they exited.

In the tunnel that docked to the plane, yet another airport employee was waiting to assist them. A tall lanky man with red hair and a mustache, dressed in a navy shirt, jeans and a neon orange vest waited with Charles' personal wheel chair.

There was a series of polite 'thank you's and 'you're welcome's from the three adults as Professor Xavier repeated the action from before, sliding from chair to chair. This time, the airport employee helped him steady himself a little.

Then, they were on their way. Valerie stayed quiet and made sure to keep up as Ororo led her through the crowded airport. Her eyes lingered on children walking and sitting with their parents, bundled up warmly and looking excited for whatever destination they were headed to.

Valerie thought of her mother and felt a little sad... But she knew she was doing this for her. And herself, too.

She had to be brave. She had to have courage. She had to be strong.

...

x

...

Finally, after a two hour drive out of New York City into a town called North Salem, Professor Xavier, Ororo, and Valerie arrived at their final destination.

The limo that had been waiting at the airport for them cruised up the side of a tall hill, staying on the serene path carved out of the country side.

"It won't be too much longer now," Professor Xavier assured Valerie from the seat across from her.

It was meant to be comforting, but for some reason his comment only made her more nervous. Her stomach twisted into knots as the limo pulled to a stop in front of a large, black iron gate. It was hidden between tall ledges of marbled stone, and underneath the faded orange leaves of the withering trees.

Valerie could see a giant, loopy X welded into the metal, and slowly the gate began to open. The limo passed through, and Valerie stared out the window at the enormous building coming into view.

It looked even more beautiful than the pictures in the brochure, standing tall and magnificent with the structure of a castle. The moss and vines growing up the front face of the building had died and become brown, brittle twigs, clinging to the stone like a skeleton.

Finally the vehicle came to a stop in front of the front steps, leading up to the luxurious set of dark oak doors.

"Here we are." Charles spoke up again, his accent putting a cheerful, lyrical tone to his voice. "Valerie, why don't you go with Ororo... she'll show you to your room, and I believe the other children are out in the back courtyard... It's that time of day. I'll catch up with you later."

Ororo smiled down at the young feline girl, popping open the back door of the limo and stepping outside. She held it open as Valerie followed her, and the limo began driving off around the corner of the mansion once the door was shut.

Valerie began to wonder here Professor Xavier was disappearing to, but pushed that out of her mind as Ororo led her up the steps, placing her hand on the shiney brass doorknob.

"Ready?" The tall, gorgeous woman asked with a smile over her shoulder.

The anticipation was building. Valerie gulped lightly but nodded her head, keeping her chin up and and tightening her grip on the straps of her backpack.

Ororo then turned the handle, and the door made a soft 'click' as it unlatched and granted them access.

As Valerie made her way through the thresh hold, the aroma of books and cedar overwhelmed her. There was also the faint smell of something cooking in a kitchen somewhere in the house, like pizza or spaghetti. Even under the disguise of her beanie, Valerie's cat ears picked up the acute sounds of footsteps down the halls and upstairs, and hushed voices from all corners of the mansion.

Valerie tried not to hone in on every little sound, it got overwhelming sometimes... but she couldn't exactly help it either.

"Come on, sweetie." Ororo said to her, her voice calm and gentle, " Your room's this way."

Valerie followed Ororo through a hallway lined with old bookshelves full of decoritive artifacts and things, picture frames posted in flowing patterns on the walls. They rounded a corner into a gorgeous main room with shiney marble floors, tall ceilings and an enourmous, twinkling chandeleir.

The room was full of comfy looking furniture, cozy nooks and places to sit and read a book. In the far corner was a large flatscreen TV nestled in a gorgeous cherrywood entertainment center.

Ororo led Valerie around the corner and up a flight of stairs. Above them on the wall was a shiney plaque that read "Underclassmen". A small smile crept to her face as she read the word... It sounded so official.

When they got to the top of the stairs, There were three ways you could go: Straight, left or right. The wing made the shape of a cinderblock, if that makes sense... And there were lots of rooms. On the right side were odd numbers; 1B, 3B, 5B, etc.; And even on the left; 2B, 4B, 6B, etc.

Ororo took a right, and Valerie followed. The setting sun flashed through the tall, crystal windows, warming the hallways in an early evening glow. They stopped at the very end of the hall, and Ororo motioned to the door on the very corner to their left; 10B.

"Here we are." She said to Valerie, her smile as warm as the orange glow from the sun.

Valerie glanced from Ororo, to the doorhandle of room 10B. Assuming it was unlocked, she reached up and grasped the cool, shiney brass. The big oak door opened almost silently as she twisted the knob, and Ororo flicked the light on as the walked inside.

The room was gorgeous. The walls were a creamy beige, trimmed in dark cherrywood. The floors matched the trim, dark and smooth, covered in a neutral, tan rug. There was a huge bay window on the back wall covered in pillows, and on either side of the room was a twin size bed, a nightstand, a dresser, and a small closet.

To the right, the bed and dressers were bare. Valerie's bags sat neatly organized near the furniture, waiting to be unpacked.

To the left, the bed was dressed in pink camo sheets and pillow cases. The sports trophies and posters decorating that side of the room told Valerie that whoever slept there was a bit of a tomboy.

"I hope you don't mind having a roommate." Ororo spoke up to Valerie.

"Um, no, I don't mind..." She said, her voice uncertain, "It might even be kind of cool."

She forced her words out, because truth was she was terrified live with a roommate. It had been months since she had even seen another kid her age, let alone interacted with one.

"You'll like Kitty, she's a very sweet girl." Ororo continued, and Valerie assumed she was talking about the girl she would be sharing the room with, "How about I take you down to meet her? All the kids are out in the courtyard. You can unpack your things later."

Valerie took one more glance around the room before leaving her backpack on the bed, and follow Ororo back through the hall and down the stairs.

xxxxxx

xxxxxx

Outside in the back courtyard, there were tall oil lamps illuminating the now darkening sky. There was a huge fountain in the middle of the lot, a cobblestone walkway built around it. Colorful leaves were scattered all across the ground, leaving the clusters of trees empty and skeletal.

Teenagers milled about all over the place, some of them Valerie's age, and some a little older. Ororo led her through the crowd, and Valerie watched a few specific kids intently.

Over by the fountain, two older boys were rough housing. They shouted and laughed, and suddenly one of them shoved the other. His arms extended out like rubber, flinging the other boy straight into the fountain. To Valerie's amazement, there was no splash as the boy's body collided with the water's surface. He simply slid across, standing to his feet.

She stared, her golden eyes wide, as the boy walked across the water, ripples quaking under his shoes. He jumped from the fountain and landed back on dry ground, not a drop of water on him.

He laughed as his stretchy friend tackled him again, and soon they faded out of sight.

Ororo led Valerie past a clump of trees and shrubs, and another group of kids caught her eye as they passed.

A group of three girls sat in a circle on the grass a few feet away. One with short blonde hair typed away on her phone, then suddenly gasped and furrowed her eyebrows.

"Oooh! My phone died... I was right in the middle of texting Robbie..."

"Here, hand it to me." Her friend, a chubbier girl with curly red hair, reached out and touched the phone with the tip of her finger.

A spark ignited from her fingertip, jolting the phone back to life. The girl with the short hair smiled brightly, clicking away at the phone's buttons.

"100% battery!" She yipped excitedly, "Thanks, Lindsey!"

Soon they, too, faded out of view as Valerie and Ororo walked. She was completely amazed at all the things she was seeing these teens do, from lifting extremely heavy objects, to teleporting, and she even saw one girl take off and fly around the lamp posts.

"Here she is." Ororo finally spoke up, stopping in front of a girl sitting on a concrete ledge near the corner of the courtyard. "Kitty, this is Valerie, your new roommate. She just got here."

Kitty was a thin girl with wavy brown hair that fell down to her shoulders, her long bangs tucked behind one ear. Her face was sprinkled in light brown freckles, and her dark eye crinkled a little when she smiled.

"Hey." She greeted Valerie warmly with a wave.

"Hi." Valerie said back, forcing a smile and trying not to sound shy.

Kitty hopped down from her perch, standing maybe an inch and a half shorter than Valerie. She was dressed in a baggy forrest green t-shirt, a brown jacket, jeans, and black sneakers... Just as Valerie thought, a total tomboy.

Ororo left the two girls to get aquainted. Valerie worried that they wouldn't have anything to talk about, but was proven wrong as Kitty made the first move.

"Whoa, cool eyes!" She said with a grin as she studied Valerie's unusual mutation.

"Um... Thanks." Valerie replied slowly, not used to someone complimenting her strange difference.

"What's under the hat?" Kitty asked her, flicking her eyes upward toward Valerie's beanie.

For a second, she hesitated. She wasn't sure she was ready to reveal the ears, but after a little thought, she decided then was as good a time as any.

Valerie slowly reached up, tugging at the hem of the beanie and sliding it off her head of dark hair. She instantly felt the brisk air brushing through the fuzzy gray fur on her ears, and twitched them about.

"Wow..." Kitty gasped, her grin growing wide, "Awesome! Do you have a tail, too?"

Valerie nodded, Kitty's smile becoming contagious. She could tell her excitement was real, and not meant to make fun of her like kids her age usually did.

"Wanna see something neat?" Kitty asked, suddenly bending down and scooping up a rock in her hand. She extended her arm, holding her hand out to a very confused Valerie.

"...Okay," The feline teen said slowly, taking the rock from Kitty's hand.

"Hold on," Kitty said before backing up a few paces, facing Valerie. "Okay. Throw the rock at me."

Valerie scrunched up her eyebrows, her cat eyes flashing in the light of one of the oil lamps. "Huh...?"

"Just throw the rock at me." Kitty insisted, putting her hands on her hips. "Trust me."

Valerie glanced down at the rock in her hand, then back up at the grinning, freckley faced girl in front of her. She shrugged, took a deep breath, and chucked the rock straight toward Kitty's stomach.

Valerie flinched when the rock should have pelted the girl, but instead it passed right through her and smacked into the concrete ledge behind her.

Kitty laughed as Valerie's mouth hung open in amazement.

"Oh my gosh!" Valerie gasped, "How did you do that?!"

"I don't know," Kitty giggled, "It just happens."

"I wish I could do something cool like that..." Valerie sulked, "I just look weird. And I guess I can hear pretty good... Big whoop."

"C'mon, what you have IS cool!" Kitty insisted to Valerie before something across the lot caught her eye, "Oh! There's Bobby... I'll introduce you to him!"

Before Valerie could object, Kitty had her by the wrist and was dragging her across the grass, over to a boy with spiky blonde hair. He stood with his back to the girls, a good few inches taller than each of them.

He was amidst a crowd of other students, watching a small game of soccer. As the girls got closer, Valerie noticed something strange about the two teams of three battling for the ball... Each player was identical to the others, clones.

"Bobby!" Kitty chirped, and the boy turned around.

The first thing Valerie noticed about this boy were his striking blue eyes. The next were his dimples that framed his pearly white smile.

"Hey, Kitty." Bobby greeted the girl attached to Valerie's wrist, shoving his hands in the front pocket of his red hoodie.

"This is Valerie, my new roommate." Kitty said, raising her voice over the sudden cheers of the other teens watching the soccer game, "She just got here, so I figured I'd help her make a few friends. Val, this is Bobby."

As Kitty introduced the two, Valerie noticed a blush rise to her freckly cheeks. Her eyes twinkled when Bobby talked, and it was obvious she had a crush on this boy.

"Hi, Valerie, welcome to Mutant High." Bobby said to the feline girl as he extended his hand out to her. "Cool ears."

She smiled and grasped his hand, shaking it firmly. "Nice to meet you, Bobby... And, thanks."

"Why don't you show Val here somethin' cool?" Kitty urged Bobby, obviously talking about his mutation, " showed her my phasing. I bet she'd get a kick out of your ice."

"Ice...?" Valerie repeated quizically.

"Oh, see," Kitty nudged Valerie's arm with her elbow, "She's curious. C'mon, Bobbyyyy!"

"I dunno..." The blonde boy said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"It doesn't have to be anything crazy." Kitty pressed on.

Finally, Bobby agreed. He led the two girls over to a concrete post under the overhang near the fountain, squeezing by crowds of chattering students. He motioned for them to hide behind him, and they obliged.

"Professor Summers is coming..." Bobby whispered to Kitty, who snickered silently.

She seemed to know his plan, nodding for me to watch what he was doing as he crouched down to the ground. Bobby placed his palms flat on the browning grass, and just as a man of average height with dark hair, a square jaw, and a strange contraption over his eyes came into view, he went into action.

Valerie watched in amazement as Bobby's palms began to glow with a pale blue aura. A thin layer of frosty ice formed from under his hands, rapidly traveling straight out into the man's path, who could have only been Professor Summers.

The three young students couldn't contain their snickering as the teacher suddenly lost his footing, slipping and sliding on the thin film of ice. Finally, he collapsed onto his rear end into a patch of bushes.

"Bobby!" Professor Summers shouted as he noticed the boy and the two girls, "Kitty!"

"Oh, crap, run!" Bobby whispered to Valerie and Kitty, who turned to dash in the other direction.

The three teens cackled in hysterical laughter as the darted through the crowd of students, ignoring Professor Summers' calls for them to come back.

"Bravo, bravo." Kitty applauded Bobby once they were in the clear, clapping her hands together.

The blonde haired boy took a bow, grinning from ear to ear. Valerie giggled at their goofyness.

"Yo, Bobby!" A random voice suddenly shouted from across the yard, "Play me in a game of hoops!"

"Alright!" Bobby called back to whoever it was, "Catch ya later, Kitty. Nice meeting you, Val! Maybe we'll have a class or two together."

"Um, y-yea. Later!" Valerie replied with a huge smile.

"See ya, Bobby!" Kitty hollered out as he jogged away, giving her a wave.

"C'mon, man!" The same voice that had called to Bobby rang from the crowd again, sounding more distant this time.

"I'm coming!" He yelled back, gaining some distance himself, "And no powers this time!"

When Bobby was gone, Valerie turned to Kitty. She seemed to be in a love struck daze, her eyes glassy and her cheeks flushed... An arrow might as well have been sticking out of her back, the way she was watching at him leave.

"You like him...!" Valerie whispered to her new friend, feeling like a normal teenage girl for a second.

Kitty snapped her dark eyes over to Valerie, the red in her cheeks spreading to her ears and neck.

"N-no..." She quickly defended herself, causing Valerie to narrow her eyes. "... I do not!"

Kitty's voice raised an octive, totally giving her secret away.

"Come on, he's cute!" Valerie giggled. "Why are you so embarassed?"

Kitty meekly shrugged her shoulders, kicking at a rock with the toe of her sneaker.

"I don't know..." She sighed, "He wouldn't like me back, anyway. I'm not like other girls, I don't wear make up or frilly clothes... I'm just average."

Valerie blinked at the girl for a moment, processing what she had just said.

"Are you kidding me?" She breathed finally, "Kitty, you're gorgeous! I'd give anything to look like you."

Kitty turned her brown eyes to Valerie's gold ones, searching them. The feline teen nodded her head, a sincere expression on her face.

It was true. Valerie would have given anything to just be rid of her ears and tail, and look like a normal girl. But, now, there was a small part of her that was maybe, just maybe... Starting to like her mutation.

Finally, Kitty's gloomy expression brightened into a smile again.

"Thanks, Val." She said, "You're a pretty cool chick."

Valerie felt butterflies well up in her stomach. Someone thought she was... Cool? She had to tame her toothy grin... She didn't want to look too excited, that would be pretty nerdy.

"Right back atcha." She said to Kitty.

With that, Kitty led Valerie around campus, showing her key areas: The kitchen, the gym, the library... And their conversation never broke or took an awkward turn, not once.

Valerie had always heard people talk about a situation where they met someone and just "clicked", instantly becoming best friends... But it had never happened to her. Not until now.

She and Kitty understood each other, and their energy just flowed together.

It was her friendship with Kitty that made Valerie realize, leaving home had been the right decision. She had never felt so in-place somewhere, so free and comfortable to just be herself.

This was a new chance at life.

...

...X


	4. 3

Age 14

Valerie's freshman year at Mutant High came and went, going by fairly smoothly. She and Kitty had grown to become best friends, completely inseperable, with the exceptions of classes and school functions.

Kitty knew all of Valerie's secrets, dreams, likes and dislikes; and vice versa. They were so in sync, they may as well have been the same girl, minus their appearences and mutations.

Throughout the school year, Valerie had also formed a close relationship with Bobby.

Although there was no friendship bond that could overpower one that was shared between two teenage girls, what Valerie and Bobby had was certainly a close second. At one year and three months her senior, Valerie looked to Bobby as an older brother, someone she could trust and confide in.

He was someone who had always looked out for her and stood up for her during her first months at the institute, taking her under his wing when she had still been unsure of herself.

He still tried to protect Valerie and Kitty, even though he knew Kitty would fight like a boy to defend herself, and Valerie had been given more than enough time to define the kind of person she was;

A rebelious, out spoken girl with a punk rock, fire cracker personality, and she didn't take any shit from anybody... Even at age 14.

The feline girl grew to become well known with the students of each grade, and well liked... Especially with the boys. She wasn't much into dating or kissing yet, but more of her friends were boys than girls, with the exception of Kitty and a few others... For some reason they were simply easier for her to get along with, and there was something about her that the boys were just drawn to.

For the students of mutant high, it was the start of summer vacation. The halls and courtyard were more vacant during the 90 days of summer break, due to the amount of students who traveled back to their homes to see their families.

Valerie missed her mother, but she knew it wasn't a good idea to venture back to Kansas to see her... She just didn't feel right there. She had never been accepted by friends, family, teachers, peers or neighbors, and her prescense only seemed to cause problems for anyone she cared about. So, to Valerie, it was best she stayed at the school, and kept interactions with her mother to letters and occassional phone calls.

Having her friends around during the summer months definately helped keep the loneliness away, too.

Kitty didn't have a great home life, constantly fighting with her drug addicted mother and college drop out older brother, and Bobby's parents weren't fond of mutants and had no idea he was one, much less attended a school called "Mutant High" by its students... They thought he was away at a private prep school. So they, too, chose to stay behind.

Valerie had sympathy for both of her best friends' difficult situations, but deep down she was happy they didn't go home. Sure, she had a good handful of friends, many of which lived at the institute during the summer...

But Kitty and Bobby were her best friends, and no matter how carefree and cool she was around everyone she met, Valerie was always most comfortable around the two of them.

They were her family.

...

x

...

Summer had just begun, and the weather still hadn't made up it's mind; rainy or sunny, making Valerie wish for the umpteenth time that she posessed Storm's weather manipulation abilities.

Storm was Professor Ororo's code name for the "X-Men", a team of specific mutants selected by Professor Xavier, but the younger students weren't allowed to know much else about where they went or what they did. The biggest job they had was recruiting other mutants of all different ages and types, and bringing them back to the institute.

On boring, rainy days like these, Kitty, Valerie and Bobby always found themselves thinking of the coolest code names for themselves.

"How 'bout, 'Professor Glacier'?" Bobby suggested his third name in five minutes, sitting next to Kitty on one of the big brown leather couches in the common room. He waved his hands about in the space in front of him for emphasis.

His feet were propped on the long glass coffee table, which was a pet peeve of Professor Gray; One of their teachers with the ability of telekinesis, and another X-Men member.

A lot of the boys had crushes on her, including Professor Summers, and for good reason. She was tall, thin, and her scarlett colored hair was feathery and framed her face. Not to mention her eyes were the most lucious shade of dark, chocolate brown that anyone could come by.

Still, her OCD about cleanliness and pet peeves about shoes on the furniture were a bit aggravating, so the students tended to bend the rules when she wasn't around.

"Lame." Kitty flatly responded to Bobby, "I told you, 'Iceman' would be the COOLEST codename for you!"

"Oh, that's a good one!" Bobby's eyes brightened, and Kitty grinned, assuming she had convinced him. "...'Professor Cool'!"

Kitty's grin faded into a frown as she grabbed a tan pillow from behind her head, flinging it straight at Bobby's face. He raised an arm just at the right moment and deflected it, sending it flying over the back of the couch.

"Jeez, you're really stuck on this 'Professor' thing," Kitty said, "'ICEMAN'! You're not a professor!"

Bobby laughed at Kitty's outburst, and from her position seated on the rug in front of the couch, Valerie joined in the laughter.

"I think I have to side with my girl on this one," Valerie said to Bobby with a sheepish, adorable scrunch of her nose, "'Professor' is pretty lame."

Realizing it was two against one, girls against boy, Bobby furrowed his blonde eyebrows and huffed out an exhale.

"Okay, coming from the girl with cat ears who used to be so set on... What was it...?" Bobby retorted, pausing to sarcastically pretend to think for a second, "Oh, yea!... 'Cat Girl'."

"The key phrase there is 'used to'." Valerie shot back with a smartass grin, "I've changed my mind a few times since then."

"All right then, let's hear what you got." Bobby insisted, ignoring Kitty's girlish giggles.

Kitty put on a tough exterior and dressed like a tomboy, but deep down she was a regular girl just like any other, and Bobby always brought that side out of her. She never liked to admit it, though.

"Well, there's a few, but my favorite is 'Feline'. Simple, but gets the point across." She explained with a tilt of her head in Bobby's direction.

Her long gray tail flicked back and forth behind her, snaking out from a slit cut into her jean shorts. Because of her physical mutation, Valerie always had to tailor her own pants and shorts, cutting small holes just below the belt loops.

"I think that name's pretty cool." Kitty piped up with a shrug.

Bobby rolled his eyes and gave Kitty a look.

"Of course you like her ideas, you guys are basically the same person." He grumbled. "Wasn't your code name idea something to do with cats?"

"Shadowcat." Kitty confirmed, swiping her fingers like cat claws, "Rawr!"

Valerie laughed again and Kitty smiled at her. Bobby rolled his baby blue eyes once more, but knew he couldn't hide the dimples in his cheeks as he smirked.

No matter how much his two best friends bugged him, those girls always managed to get to him and bring out his smile.

"Whatever," The blonde teen sighed as he pushed himself off the couch, "I'm gonna go get a drink. You guys want anything?"

Glancing over at a glass of milk she had poured herself fifteen minutes earlier that was still a quarter full, Valerie shook her head. "I'm good."

"Kitty?" Bobby looked at the freckley faced brunette seated on the couch, waiting for her answer.

"Uuuh..." She stammered, "Just a coke, I guess."

Bobby nodded and assured the girls he would be right back. Valerie watched him as he crossed the floor of the common room, strolled around the corner and into the hallway to the right, which led to the kitchen.

When he was gone, Valerie glanced slyly up at Kitty. Just as she suspected, her cheeks were rosie pink and she seemed to stare distantly at where Bobby had been standing. It took her by surprise when Valerie stood up and plopped down on the leather next to her.

The feline girl sat with her legs crossed and the same sly smirk on her face as she stared at Kitty. Her ears were perked up ontop of her head, and they contrasted her dark, almost black wavy hair, sticking out like two sore thumbs.

Kitty eyed Valerie's facial expression and body language. She skeptically narrowed her own sandy colored eyes, pointing a warning finger at her friend.

"Don't even start." Kitty said, knowing exactly where this was heading.

"When are you gonna tell him you like him...!" Valerie demanded, her voice hushed. She flashed her shimmery gold eyes over to the hall, making sure Bobby wasn't coming back yet.

So far, they were still in the clear.

Kitty tossed her head of frizzy brown hair backwards, letting out a groan. Ever since Valerie had found out her secret the first night they met, she had been nagging and begging her to confess her feelings to the boy.

"We've talked about this, Val." Kitty sighed now, her cheeks burning red, "I'm not gonna tell him."

"What if he likes you back?!" Valerie persisted, finding it hard to take no for an answer.

Images of her two best friends falling in love, getting married, and living happily ever after flooded her mind. They were all under 16, but still the thought was adorable.

"He doesn't." Kitty said bluntly, "Trust me."

"You don't know that!" Valerie shot back, "He could be your soul maaaaate!"

Kitty laughed at Valerie's sudden drop in her voice, from moderately quiet to husky whisper. She repeated her pillow slinging attack from earlier, pelting Valerie with an orange one, this time.

But unlike Bobby, Valerie retaliated. She clutched a pillow in each hand, whipping them back at Kitty one after the other. Kitty simply stuck her tounge out at Valerie, letting the pillow sail straight through her.

"Ha!" She laughed triumphantly.

"Oh, you cheater!" Valerie said, her small, pointed feline fangs showing in her grin, "I still forget you can do that sometimes."

Just then, Bobby rounded the corner holding two glasses of dark, bubbly soda. The girls hushed their giggles as he neared them, lowering one of the glasses down to Kitty.

"Thank you, sir." She said to him, holding up her glass as if she had just proposed a toast.

"You're welcome, ma'am." Bobby replied back with a small, mock bow, before he turned to look down at Valerie, "What, I get up for two minutes and you steal my spot? You really are part cat."

Valerie smiled innocently at Bobby, shrugging her shoulders.

"You didn't call seat check." She informed him, as if it was something everyone knew about.

Of course, he wasn't going to make her get up, so he decided to simply take a seat on the coffee table... An even bigger pet peeve of Professor Gray's.

Valerie reached her hand out for her glass of milk that Bobby was now seated next to, and he handed it to her.

"So, what were you guys laughing about a second ago?" He asked after taking a sip of his cola, flicking hid eyes back and forth between his two friends.

Valerie and Kitty glanced at each other and grinned instantly, rolling into another fit of giggles.

"What?" Bobby said as his eyebrows furrowed, "...What?!"

"Nothing." Kitty assured him after a second when she could compose herself, "It was nothing."

"Yea, you wouldn't get it." Valerie played along, trying to sound casual and beliveable.

She didn't really know if she was succeeding, because Bobby gave up on determining the source of their laughter pretty quickly.

By now, he had learned that it was just a waste of time, effort, and breath to get anything secretive out of them.

"Bobby." A stern female voice suddenly spoke up.

The three teens turned their attention toward the tall entry way to the room behind the couch, where Professor Gray had poked her head around the corner as she passed by. "Off the coffee table, please."

Bobby instantly shot to his feet, stuttering an apology. Some of the soda sloshed from his glass, splashing onto his sneaker. Kitty snorted as her snickers escaped, and Valerie was close to losing control herself.

Professor Gray warned Bobby not to sit on the coffee table anymore, and once she disappeared, the Ice mutant glared at Valerie and Kitty, who only cracked up more.

"Aw, shut up..." He grumbled, but there was just the slightest of smiles on his lips as he lifted his glass to them, and downed the rest of his soda.

...

x

...

Age 15

"I... hate... HOMEWORK." Valerie groaned loudly from her seat at her desk, next to the foot of her bed.

She thunked her forehead down, smacking it against the pages of her open science textbook. "Maybe I can memorize the periodic table this way..."

"We've only been doing this for, like, an hour." Kitty laughed lightly from her post across the room, sitting ontop of her bed. "I think you'll live."

Her hair was in a messy bun ontop of her head, and a pair of black rimmed glasses were perched on her thin nose. She had the same science textbook open on her bedspread, tapping her pencil against the pages.

"But it's Sundaaaay, it's supposed to be a day of rest!" Valerie whined, slinking from her spot at her desk and crawling onto Kitty's bed. She sprawled her body across the science book, rising a chuckle from her best friend. "We still have four and a half months of Sophomore year to study and be smart."

Kitty pushed her glasses up on her nose and attempted to yank the book out from underneath Valerie's thin body. She made sure to let her muscles fall limp, giving Kitty the entirety of her dead weight to deal with. This made the task of getting her book back nearly impossible.

"If you just focus, you could get it done and it would be over with." Kitty told Valerie, temporarily giving up on the textbook and sitting back on the bed indian style.

Valerie scowled up at Kitty, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Eghh, save me the lecture... You sound like one of the Professors." She scoffed, "'You're not stupid, Valerie. You're just lazy.'... Wom waa wom wom waaah."

The feline girl used funny voices and her fingers as air quotes, ending her statement with an imitation of the imfamous teachers from 'Charlie Brown'.

"Hey, it's better than waiting till the last second." Kitty said with a matter-of-fact shrug.

"Can we PLEAAASE just at least go down to the library, or something?" Valerie begged, ignoring Kitty's comment and rolling over on her stomach ontop of the textbook.

Finally, Kitty sighed and gave into her best friend's pleads.

"Fiiiine," She complied as she hopped off her bed, "Just let me change first. I look like crap."

Valerie yipped with glee, probably just a little too excited about leaving their bedroom. She didn't plan on changing her clothes, though. Like she had said, it was Sunday, so in Valerie's opinion her oversized, purple v-neck t-shirt and black and white aztec print leggings were perfectly appropriate attire.

Throw in her loose braid falling down her back and her pair of fuzzy slipper-boots, and the look was complete. She wasn't even going to bother putting on make up.

"Jeez, Kit, who're you trying to impress?" Valerie asked her best friend as she watched her slip into her snuggest pair of skinny jeans and the one top she had that showed the slighest bit of cleavage, "Oh yea, I remember... BOBBY."

Kitty shot Valerie a glare, but didn't deny it anymore. She still hadn't confessed her feelings for their mutual best friend to him personally, but there was no point in trying to fool Valerie anymore.

"Yea, yea." Kitty brushed the comments from her shoulder. After letting her thin hair down from its bun and combing her fingers through the strands, she plucked her glasses from her face, folded them, and placed them gently on her nightstand.

"Don't forget your books, Val." Kitty reminded Valerie, who most certainly would have left them behind if she hadn't been reminded, "Let's go."

...

x

...

The halls of the institute weren't as conjested as they would have been on a regular day of class, so the journey to the library was going to be a lot smoother than normal. Still, the library was on the opposite corner as Kitty and Valerie's room in the underclassmen wing, so it was a good five or six minute treck even with clear hallways.

"Is Bobby there already?" Valerie asked Kitty as the two made their way down the stairs from the wing, passing a tall, lanky 16 year old with a shaggy blonde mop that covered his eyes.

His name was Jackson, and he couldn't speak; He had been born without a voicebox. But, he could create projected pictures from his retinas based off music he was listening to. So, he always had earbuds in his ears... Always.

"Hey, Jack!" Kitty projected her voice as she greeted him, and both girls raised their hands to wave at him. Jackson nodded and waved back, disappearing around the corner. Kitty picked right back up into their conversation. "I dunno. I texted him when we left the room, but he hasn't answered."

She nodded, and they continued walking. They passed through a long hall of historic mutant artifacts and memorbelia. On either side of the hall, the walls were lined with crystal windows. To the left, the eyes could see a small area of grass and neatly kept flowers, and the neighboring section of the stone building stretching for the sky just behind the garden.

Dark, empty classrooms could be seen through the windows across the small courtyard. Those rooms would be lit up and full of students at 7:15 Monday morning, just a handful of hours away.

On other side, to the right, was a much larger yard that stretched around to the front of the building, where a limo could be seen pulling up in the front drive. Valerie stopped and stared out the window, her head tilting to the side in curiosity.

That looked just like the limo she had arrived to the institution in two years ago.

"Val?" Kitty suddenly called out. She hadn't noticed her friend had stopped walking, and had gained a few feet of distance from her. "You okay."

Valerie simply nodded and waved Kitty over to her. "C'mere, look."

Her friend gave her a quizical stare, but lingered back to the window and gazed out at what Valerie was gesturing to.

Storm stepped out of the vehicle, leading a man with a crazy hair do and a leather jacket. Before the limo drove off, another person stepped out. A young girl, looking to be about 15, Valerie and Kitty's age. She wore leather gloves on her hands and a strange, hooded brown robe, so her face couldn't be seen... Only her chin and the tips of her long brown hair.

The girls stayed silent as Storm led them up the front steps. They disappeared behind the huge stone pillars, and just like that they were gone. The whole scene probably lasted four seconds, but it felt more like four minutes.

Kitty and Valerie exchanged strange, confused glances before hurrying off down the hallway. It was always exciting when new mutants arrived.

Now they had to tell Bobby.

.

..

...

...

...

...

...

..

.

x


	5. 4

AN:: hey guys! just wanted to mention that I changed the numbers on the chapters. Originally, this would have been chapter 2.5

But now its chapter 4, and all the chapter titles before this one are changed, too. still the same content, though!

Just didn't want anyone confused (:

...

x

...

"New mutants?"

"Yup... A man and a girl."

"Was the girl pretty?"

"Oh, jeez. I don't know, I didn't see her face."

"What...? How could you not see her face?"

"She was wearing some... weird cloak thing."

Bobby and Valerie's hushed voices whispered from the far back corner of the library. They were tucked into their usual "study spot"; a round table on the upper level, settled in a nook between the American History section and the Biology section.

Usually it was pretty quiet up in that corner. Students only ventured to those shelves if they had a project due, so it was the perfect place to chat.

"A cloak, huh..." Bobby said thoughtfully, ignoring the scattered pages of his Algebra homework all over the table. "That's weird."

"And shooting ice sicles from your finger tips isn't?" Valerie countered with a raise of one of her thin, dark eyebrows.

She reached across the table and snatched a swedish fish from the crinkly yellow and blue bag next to Bobby's unopened textbook. The rule was that there was no food or drinks in the library, but Kitty and Valerie always managed to sneak in snacks with their purses or backpacks.

If it wasn't the girls smuggling in treats to fuel their study sessions, it was Bobby. Like today: A bag of swedish fish in one pocket of his black and green sports jacket, and sour gummy worms in the other.

"Touche." Bobby replied to Valerie's comment as she popped the cherry red fish shaped candy into her mouth.

Bobby mimiced Valeries actions, sighing loudly as he finally cracked open his Algebra book, after almost a half hour of sitting and chatting.

Valerie wasn't much better, though. She'd only filled out three element squares in her graph of the periodic table before becoming distracted by her doodles of roses, fairies and dragons around the edge of the paper.

She could almost read the red cursive writing that she knew would be scribbled ontop of the paper after it had been graded.

"This is science class, not art. Less drawing, please. - Professor Summers"

Valerie didn't know why he always had to sign his name to the comments he left on her papers. She knew who he was, obviously. And to those sort of comments, she'd been tempted to write back in a doodle on her next assignment: "This is high school, not college. Less homework, please. - Valerie Brookes"

But she knew that would only get her into trouble, which she was good enough at already.

"Jeez, where's Kitty?" Valerie wondered aloud as she turned in her chair and peered around the calm, quiet library. "She went to find that book forever ago-"

"Right here." Kitty's voice piped up as she suddenly phased through a book shelf, about a foot away from Bobby.

The blonde teen jumped in his chair, promptly yelping and chucking his pencil at Kitty's middle, a total reflex.

The girls cracked up laughing as Bobby clutched his heart, staring wide eyed at the thin brunette girl who had just appeared out of no where.

"When are you gonna quit doing that...?!" Bobby demanded as he stood up to collect his pencil. "I swear to god, you're gonna give me a heart attack one of these times."

Kitty was still laughing as she sat down at the table next to her feline best friend, who was also trapped in a fit of giggles.

"Hey, I really can't help it!" She defended herself with her adorable, slightly crooked grin, "It just happens. I don't even think about it."

It was true. Kitty was so comfortable with her phasing mutation, that she would often forget to open doors, or step around objects like exhibit A, a bookshelf. For those who weren't expecting it like exhibit B, Bobby, it could be pretty jarring to witness.

Bobby huffed, glaring lightly before shuffling his group of notebook papers together. Kitty cracked open the book she'd went to find, something about the different groups of elements, and began scanning the pages.

Valerie pursed her lips and flicked her long, slender cat tail as she watched her two friends study. They made it look so tolerable, searching through the pages of their books and occassionally scribbling something down on paper.

She sighed, knowing that she should be hitting the books, too... Professor Summers was known for his insanely random pop quizzes, and with a low C in his class already, she couldn't afford to fail a quiz on the stupid, complicated periodic table.

What was she ever going to use the periodic table for, anyway? She didn't plan on becoming a scientist, and even if she did, who would hire a scientist with cat ears and a tail? A real life Halloween costume.

Suddenly, the fuzzy gray ears that were perched at the top of her head twitched, picking up voices drawing closer to the library, coming from the hall. Valerie held completely still, her eyes fixed at one random point on the table and her pen motionless against the paper.

"What's up, Val?" Kitty asked quietly from across the table as she snatched a few Swedish fish from the bag.

She knew exactly what the feline girl's actions meant, like a decoder message, almost.

"Someone's coming." Valerie whispered back, standing up from the table, "It sounds like Storm... But I don't really recognize the other voice."

She slowly made her way over to the railing a few feet away and peered over the side to the library's first floor. Kitty and Bobby left their books for the moment and followed behind her, avoiding her long, flickering tail as they leaned against the railing.

Just as Valerie had said, Storm appeared through the arched doorway of the library, leading a pretty girl with dark brown hair behind her. Storm was explaining the many useful services the library offered besides just book rental, and the girl just nodded meekly in response.

"That's her." Kitty mumbled, "That's the girl we saw."

"How do you know that?" Valerie questioned as she turned her gaze to her best friend.

"Really, who else would it be?" Kitty responded, which was a good enough answer for Valerie.

But what Kitty didn't seem to notice that Valerie did, was that Bobby was falling in love right there in that library... He stared at the dark haired girl with the biggest, twinkling puppy dog eyes she'd ever seen, the redness in his cheeks totally obvious.

The feline girl had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, knowing Kitty was totally head over heels for Bobby and desperately craved his attention... Shouldn't it be her mission, as Kitty's best friend, to make Bobby fall in love with her... And not this new girl?

"Wonder what her mutation is...?" Valerie pondered aloud, just as Storm turned around and led the girl back out through the doorway, but not before she turned her head of long brown hair over her shoulder to take one last glance at the library, but caught the three teens staring instead.

Valerie and Kitty were about to double back, startled that they had been seen, but Bobby caught them off guard by simply smiling and waving at the new student.

Valerie watched as the girl softly smile back, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear as she returned his waving gesture. Then, she turned around, and hurried after Storm back down the long, elegant corridor.

...

x

...

-Two weeks later-

7:15 AM.

The bell sounded loudly throughout the halls of the institute, signaling to the students that they should be in their seats and ready to start class.

Valerie was amoung the last few stragglers, scurrying through the halls to at least make it to class with the five minute "grace period". She cursed at herself, knowing she had taken too long straightening her dark hair and perfecting her eyeliner that morning.

Johnny, a 17 year old junior that was in front of her in the stairwell, suddenly disappeared into thin air, leaving a puff of dust behind him. Valerie rolled her sharp, golden eyes.

He was lucky. She wished she had the teleportation gene. But, her feline DNA did give her excellent agility and natural free running skills, so that was a plus. As she rounded the corner on the staircase from the second floor leading up to the third, she checked her simple gold watch with the thin, brown leather strap on her left wrist.

7:18 AM. She had two minutes to get to the third floor, down the hall five classrooms and into her seat at the back of the room in Professor Gray's English Literature class... a total snore fest.

Valerie knew she probably wouldn't make it, and even if she did, Professor Gray didn't neccessarily believe in the extra five minute grass period. Still, the feline girl dashed as fast as her black, pink and white high top Nike's would carry her.

As she skidded around the halfway-point corner of the stairwell leading from floor 2 to floor 3, a short husky boy came into view, slowly making his way upward.

"Incoming, Derek!" Valerie hollered out through the mostly empty stairwell.

The freshman didn't even bother looking over his shoulder to see who called out to him. Instead, his body split into two equal pieces, as if he were made of Jell-O, allowing Valerie to race straight through without slowing down.

As the clock switched over to 7:19, Valerie launched out of the stairwell, her shoes squeaking against the shiney marble floor. The halls were almost vacant now, making the girl's stomach knot up in axiety. She hated being the last one to class.

Finally, at 7:22, she reached Classroom 232C-1, Professor Gray's classroom. She peeked inside through the horizontal, rectangle shaped window in the door. Professor Gray was speaking to the class, while her telekinesis controlled a black marker that scribbled on the white dry erase board behind her.

Valerie sighed, knowing there was obviously no way to sneak by her scarlet haired teacher. So, she reluctantly placed her hand on the doorknob, gave it a twist, and pulled the door open.

"Remember, the test on Chapter Eight will be on Thursday, and you'll need to..." Professor Gray's instructions trailed off as Valerie slunk into the room, every head turning to look at her as she tried to make her way to her seat, "Valerie, you're late. That's the third time this month."

Valerie's ears flattened on top of her head at the sound of her teacher's voice, and she wondered to herself if it was a bad thing that she didn't actually care...

"Sorry, I woke up late..." She lied in a grumble as she finally made it passed all the eyes staring at her and scooted into her seat.

"Your hair sure looks perfect for waking up late..." Came a grumble from behind her in the last row. Valerie instantly whipped around to glare at Serena McCormick, a skinny blonde girl with an X-ray vision mutation. The two girls had never exactly gotten along.

"Shut it, Serena." Valerie growled, "At least mine looks good. Yours looks like a rat's nest."

Valerie sneered at Serena's messy bun on top of her head, obviously making the blonde girl a little self conscious.

"That's enough, Miss Brookes." Professor Gray scolded, suddenly standing beside Valerie's desk when she turned back around in her seat. The scarlett haired woman slapped a small slip of pink paper on the desk in front of Valerie, making her heart sink. She knew exactly what that pink slip meant...

"Detention...?" Valerie groaned, "Again?!"

Professor Gray gave the feline girl a disapproving shake of her head, her shoulder length hair bobbing back and forth, "Maybe your fourth detention of the year will teach you to be on time to my class."

With that, the telekinetic woman turned on her heel and once again began lecturing the class about Adverbs and Pronouns.

It was safe to say Valerie wasn't paying a bit of attention. She just sat in her seat, grimly staring at the pink slip of paper in her hands as if it sealed her fate. Which, in a way, it did... She had already made plans to go see a movie after school with Kitty, but that was already flushed down the drain... Detention was from 2:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon, lasting almost the entire length of the movie they were planning to see.

Valerie let out a sigh, laying her head down on her desk, wishing she wouldn't have been so picky about the way she looked that morning...

...

X

...

2:00 rolled around way too fast.

Valerie's footsteps seemed to drag as she made her way down the hall toward the big, almost empty room that detention was held in every weekday, and one Saturday a month... Thank God today wasn't a Saturday.

A group of students brushed by her, chattering and laughing about who knows what, on their way to just go hang out and relax, and Valerie felt a pang of jealousy. Why was she stuck having to sit in this room for two hours, again?

She let out a long sigh as she paused outside the door, wondering who the other victims inside were besides her... Only one way to find out.

The hinges on the door creaked, drawing the attention of a new face at the front of the room, a new teacher. He had his dark hair styled very strangely, and it seemed to grow down the side of his face into a very unusual looking beard... He was dressed in a simple white t-shirt tucked into a air of blue jeans, and a pair of cowboy boots that were propped up on the desk, allowing him to lean the office chair he was sitting in back toward the wall. A newspaper was flipped open in his hands, and a toothpick dangled from his lips as he gnawed on it.

On the whiteboard behind him was "Professor Logan" in blue marker, looking a little sloppy and slightly loopy, and Valerie assumed it was his handwriting.

As she slowly approached the desk, she recognized him as the man who had followed the strange cloaked girl from the limo two weeks ago... Where had he been all this time?

"Another victim, huh?" The man grumbled in a husky voice as he snatched Valerie's pink slip she was holding out to him, furrowing his eyebrows as he skimmed over Professor Gray's handwriting. "Hm. Well, go ahead and have a seat, Cat Girl."

Valerie slightly glared at the new "teacher" for calling her Cat Girl, but really how could she blame him? She was a cat girl, after all. So, she sucked up her pride, and trudged to the very back corner, flopping down into the desk with a huff.

She peeked over to the other corner of the room, the front left near Professor Logan's desk, where two other students were seated in the same row, a desk apart. One of them was Ronnie, a boy in her grade with the ability to mimic anyone's voice. She'd assumed he'd gone and pissed Professor Summer's off again, repeating everything he said from the back of the room in near perfect pitch. That'd get you detention for sure, just like it had gotten Ronnie... About seven times.

The red haired girl wearing a purple sweater in the seat next to him Valerie didn't really recognize.

In the middle of the room sat one more body, Derek, the blob boy from the stairwell just a little earlier. Who knew why he could be in detention? He was so quiet... Probably got caught with food in one of the classrooms, or something.

After another minute or two, Professor Logan flicked his eyes up at the clock on the wall, which read 2:05, then cleared his throat and stood up behind the desk, drawing our attention.

"Okay, guys." He began, "Name's Professor Logan... Y'know what, forget that." He suddenly turned around and wiped away the word "Professor" written on the board behind him with his hand, leaving behind only a blue smudge next to the word "Logan". "Just call me Logan. I'm not a Professor, if you couldn't tell, and I don't wanna be here any more than you all do. So, let's make these next two hours as easy as possible for each other."

His voice was flat and bored as he spoke to the group of teenagers, and before they knew it Logan was already seated again, flipping through his newspaper.

Not even thirty seconds passed before the door swung open again, and Valerie turned her head to see who had walked into detention late. They were lucky it was this new Logan guy working as the aide today, or else they'd be in deep shit.

Valerie's eyes locked onto a boy looking to be her age that she'd never seen here before... He had sandy, light brown hair, dark eyes, and stood probably three or four inches taller than the feline girl.

For some reason, as he casually made his way up to the desk where Logan sat peering at him, Valerie couldn't take her her golden eyes off of him. He was actually really cute, way cuter than most of the boys she went to school with.

"Nice, late to detention on your first day." Logan muttered with a slight smirk that he was desperately trying to hide, reading over the new kid's pink slip. "Well, you've got a little while, so go ahead and sit."

Valerie instantly dropped her eyes to a doodle she'd started on the back of an old math homework assignment from Professor Storm's class as the cute boy turned around to scan the seats he had to choose from.

The sound of his footsteps were suddenly drawing closer, and when she glanced up she could see the boy walking toward her. He had this non-chalant, i-don't-give-a-fuck attitude about him, walking slowly with his shoulders lax and his face seeming bored.

When he locked eyes with Valerie, though, he grinned... Her heartbeat immediately stepped up it's pace, and she simply couldn't fight away the warm, red hue rising to her cheeks. So, she softly smiled back, then dropped her eyes back down to the paper in front of her.

She listened as the boy plopped down in the seat right next to her, dropping his black backpack down on the floor next to his feet. Valerie's cheeks grew redder and redder, feeling the boys eyes on her... God, why was he staring?

Suddenly, a hand reached over and tapped quietly on Valerie's desk. She flinched a little and turned her head, following the arm attached to the hand on her desk up to the new boy's attractive face. Up close like this, she noticed his eyes were dark, but had flecks of green in them as the light flashed on them... Her stomach fluttered.

The boy silently motioned to the paper in front of Valerie, and she slowly slid it over to him. The new kid snatched it up and pulled it over to his desk, now motioning for the pen in Valerie's hand. She quickly passed it over, making sure Logan wasn't watching. Sure enough, he was still buried in that newspaper.

The boy quickly scribbled something onto the paper, then passed it along with the pen back over to Valerie.

She glanced down at it, trying to find what and where he'd written, finally finding one single word in scratchy handwriting.

"Hey."

She scribbled down her own greeting, then passed the paper back. "Hi."

Valerie waited while the boy wrote something else down, then took the paper back from him.

"Cool eyes. I'm John."

The feline girl couldn't help but smile a little as she read his handwriting, then responded before passing the note back.

"And the ears and tail aren't? Just kidding... Thanks. I'm Valerie."

She watched as John read over her reply, grinning to himself, then wrote something else for Valerie to read when he handed her the paper.

"Nah, they're cool! Awesome, actually. Wanna see something cool that I can do?"

Valerie giggled a little to herself as she read John's words, then turned to him and nodded in response to his question.

He dug around in his pocket while glancing up toward the front of the class. Logan still wasn't paying a bit of attention, so he pulled out something shiny and made of metal... A zippo lighter, with a design on the cap that looked like shark teeth.

John turned his eyes back to Valerie, nodding his head downward to direct her gaze to his hands. She followed his silent instructions, and watched as he flipped open the lighter and ignited the flame.

Valerie gasped quietly as she witnessed the flame swirly temporarily out of control, but was quickly tamed into the palm of John's hand, glowing softly as it morphed and folder together in glowing orange light.

John moved his palms just slightly seeming to mold the wild flame into shape after shape, until it formed an obvious face of a cat, complete with pointy ears and glowing eyes, even whiskers.

The feline girl smiled a toothy grin up at the new boy, who's adorable face was illuminated in the orange glow of his amazing mutation. Valerie felt her heart and stomach twist together as John smirked at her.

"Hey, Sparky." Logan's deep voice suddenly piped up, startling both John and Valerie. The new boy snapped his lighter shut, instantly smothering the flame in his palm as both teens stared up t the front of the room. Logan was staring at them with one of his thick eyebrows raised, "Quit flirtin' with cat girl. When four o'clock rolls around, you'll have all the time in the world for that."

The other few students in the room peered back at the two in the back, snickering as they turned back around in their seats, before leaving the room in silence again.

John and Valerie glanced at each other, smiling and trying to fight laughter away.

Despite Logan's orders, they continued to shamelessly flirt all throughout the two hours that remained of detention.

And all of a sudden, Valerie wasn't so upset that she'd winded up there in the first place.

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To be continued.

AN:: guys, I'm so sorry I haven't been updating this story. I know a handful of you have been voting/commenting and reviewing, depending on if you're reading this on Wattpad or Fanfiction, but I've just had no inspiration for this one :/ But then, I got a review on Fanfiction last night from sketchingnerd97 that made me want to continue this story!

So, from here on out, this story is dedicated to you, sketchingnerd97, for making me realize that this story isn't a total dud, and that I do have readers that are waiting to know what happens with Valerie (:

So, now I've re-organized all the key events, and I'm going to do my best to continued and post regular updates, along with my other fanfics.

Thank you!


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